Anxious children who received treatment grow -up: An 8-to-13 year follow-up study

This dissertation examined the long-term efficacy (8-to-13 years, M = 9.54, SD = 1.689) of exposure-based cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for phobic and anxiety disorders in youths. Long-term efficacy was examined in terms of diagnostic recovery, symptom reductions, and clinically significant change. This dissertation also examined predictors of long-term efficacy (e.g., age, gender, and other clinical characteristics) as well as the relative long-term efficacy of CBT for Hispanic/Latino and European American youth. ^ Participants consisted of 67 youth (age range 15–26 years; M = 19.43, SD = 3.02 years at time of follow-up assessment), (47.8% females, 37.3% Hispanic/Latino) who had participated in one of two clinical trials (Silverman et al., 1999a, b). After providing informed consent to participate in the long term follow-up, youths completed a diagnostic interview and a battery of questionnaires. Results indicated that treatment gains were maintained about 9.5 years after treatment was completed. Maintenance of treatment gains was evident in terms of diagnostic recovery, symptom reductions, and clinically significant change. Long-term treatment gains extended to both ethnic groups and the two ethnic groups were functionally equivalent along most indices examined. Analyses of predictors of long-term outcome showed that parent self-reported pre-treatment depression, youth-reported pre-treatment depression, and youths retrospective reports of negative life events were significantly associated with less favorable long-term gains in terms of total symptoms of anxiety at long-term follow-up. In terms of long-term sequelae, youths with less successful post-treatment outcomes reported seeking-out additional treatment as well as using/abused substances and substance dependence significantly more than youths with successful post-treatment outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the contribution of the present study to knowledge base about the long-term efficacy of exposure-based CBT procedures for phobic and anxiety disorders in youth. Findings also are discussed in terms of the need to modify CBT procedures to target youths with less successful post-treatment outcomes. Limitations and future directions are presented. ^

Lucumí (Yoruba) culture in Cuba: A reevaluation (1830s -1940s)

The status, roles, and interactions of three dominant African ethnic groups and their descendants in Cuba significantly influenced the island's cubanidad (national identity): the Lucumís (Yoruba), the Congos (Bantú speakers from Central West Africa), and the Carabalís (from the region of Calabar). These three groups, enslaved on the island, coexisted, each group confronting obstacles that threatened their way of life and cultural identities. Through covert resistance, cultural appropriation, and accommodation, all three, but especially the Lucumís, laid deep roots in the nineteenth century that came to fruition in the twentieth. During the early 1900s, Cuba confronted numerous pressures, internal and external. Under the pretense of a quest for national identity and modernity, Afro-Cubans and African cultures and religion came under political, social, and intellectual attack. Race was an undeniable element in these conflicts. While all three groups were oppressed equally, only the Lucumís fought back, contesting accusations of backwardness, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and brujería (witchcraft), exaggerated by the sensationalistic media, often with the police's and legal system's complicity. Unlike the covert character of earlier epochs' responses to oppression, in the twentieth century Lucumí resistance was overt and outspoken, publically refuting the accusations levied against African religions. Although these struggles had unintended consequences for the Lucumís, they gave birth to cubanidad's African component. With the help of Fernando Ortiz, the Lucumí were situated at the pinnacle of a hierarchical pyramid, stratifying African religious complexes based on civilizational advancement, but at a costly price. Social ascent denigrated Lucumí religion to the status of folklore, depriving it of its status as a bona fide religious complex. To the present, Lucumí religious descendants, in Cuba and, after 1959, in many other areas of the world, are still contesting this contradiction in terms: an elevated downgrade.

A Construção da Nação em Cabo Verde: Homogeneidade e Heterogeneidade na Configuração Identitária

Em oposição à situação predominante da heterogeneidade da maioria dos países africanos, cuja sociedade compreende a existência de inúmeros grupos étnicos ou diferentes religiões e culturas, Cabo Verde é definido como um Estado-Nação que reconhece uma identidade coletiva, traduzida na língua e na identificação de elementos culturais comuns pertencentes a um mesmo espaço arquipelágico. O ponto de partida para este estudo assenta na preocupação em se compreender a noção de Nação neste país, que sugere a ideia de uma sociedade onde os fatores homogéneos predominam sobre os heterogéneos ou, em último caso, que se trata de um mecanismo de coabitação entre estas duas dimensões que poderão inicialmente parecer antagónicas, mas que prestam um especial sentido ao debate acerca da identidade nacional. Ao longo deste artigo, destacaremos tantos os factos históricos, bem como o contributo dos principais movimentos culturais, sem ignorar a importância da tomada de consciência no que se refere à ideia de Nação.

Application of body mass index adjusted for fat mass (BMIfat) obtained by bioelectrical impedance in adults

Introduction: Body mass index (BMI) has been one of the methods most frequently used for diagnose obesity, but it isn't consider body composition. Objective: This study intends to apply one new adiposity index, the BMI adjusted for fat mass (BMIfat) developed by Mialich, et al. (2011), in a adult Brazilian sample. Methods: A cross-sectional study with 501 individuals of both genders (366 women, 135 men) aged 17 to 38 years and mean age was 20.4 ± 2.8 years, mean weight 63.0 ± 13.5 kg, mean height 166.9 ± 9.0 cm, and BMI 22.4 ± 3.4 kg/m². Results and discussion: High and satisfactory R2 values were obtained, i.e., 91.1%, 91.9% and 88.8% for the sample as a whole and for men and women, respectively. Considering this BMIfat were developed new ranges, as follows: 1.35 to 1.65 (nutritional risk for malnutrition), > 1.65 and ≤ 2.0 (normal weight) and > 2.0 (obesity). The BMIfat had a more accurate capacity of detecting obese individuals (0.980. 0.993, 0.974) considering the sample as a whole and women and men, respectively, compared to the traditional BMI (0.932, 0.956, 0.95). Were also defined new cut-off points for the traditional BMI for the classification of obesity, i.e.: 25.24 kg/m² and 28.38 kg/m² for men and women, respectively. Conclusion: The BMIfat was applied for the present population and can be adopted in clinical practice. Further studies are needed to determine its application to different ethnic groups and to compare this index to others previously described in the scientific literature.

A participação de Portugal no Teatro de Operações Kosovo : O caso do 1º Batalhão de Infantaria Mecanizado

O Teatro de Operações Kosovo localiza-se numa região caraterizada por séculos de confluência de rotas comerciais, culturas, etnias e religiões distintas e que, por essa e outras razões tem sido assolada por inúmeros conflitos. Numa fase pós Guerra Fria, as forças internacionais, dada a escalada da violência, intervieram neste cenário integrando também forças portuguesas, entre as quais e por diversas vezes, o 1º Batalhão de Infantaria Mecanizado. Desde o início desta intervenção, desde os finais da década de noventa, até à atualidade, o teatro de operações referido experimentou diversas alterações de cariz social, politico e étnico que se traduziram por vezes em conflitos e fenómenos violentos. Dada a intervenção portuguesa num ambiente de conflitualidade volátil e em permanente mutação, inserida no âmbito das Missões de Apoio à Paz, o trabalho de investigação desenvolvido assume como objetivo descrever as alterações ao nível do emprego do 1º Batalhão de Infantaria Mecanizado, para fazer face à tipologia Kosovo do período pós Guerra Fria (2000-2014). Pretende-se que estas alterações sejam compreendidas e interpretadas através da implementação de um modelo de análise baseado nos fatores de decisão militares1, que sistematiza e organiza informação constante em documentos resultantes de cada um dos empenhamentos abordados, bem como no depoimento de militares presentes nesses mesmos contextos, no período abordado. No que a este último aspeto concerne, a aplicação do método indutivo usando como instrumento de opção metodológica o Estudo de Caso, permite a recolha de dados qualitativos resultantes das respostas obtidas nas entrevistas semiestruturadas, a militares presentes no Kosovo no período compreendido entre 2000 e 2014. Após toda a investigação realizada, parecem ganhar evidência alterações ao nível do emprego do 1º Batalhão de Infantaria Mecanizado no TO Kosovo, evidências essas materializadas nos fatores Missão, Ameaça, Tarefas, Viaturas, Efetivo e Orgânica, como consequência quer das restruturações efetuadas da Kosovo Force (KFOR), quer das oscilações de conflitualidade inerentes ao próprio teatro, que, ao longo do lapso de tempo estudado, atravessou períodos de menor e maior estabilidade.

Lucumí (Yoruba) Culture in Cuba: A Reevaluation (1830S -1940s)

The status, roles, and interactions of three dominant African ethnic groups and their descendants in Cuba significantly influenced the island’s cubanidad (national identity): the Lucumís (Yoruba), the Congos (Bantú speakers from Central West Africa), and the Carabalís (from the region of Calabar). These three groups, enslaved on the island, coexisted, each group confronting obstacles that threatened their way of life and cultural identities. Through covert resistance, cultural appropriation, and accommodation, all three, but especially the Lucumís, laid deep roots in the nineteenth century that came to fruition in the twentieth. During the early 1900s, Cuba confronted numerous pressures, internal and external. Under the pretense of a quest for national identity and modernity, Afro-Cubans and African cultures and religion came under political, social, and intellectual attack. Race was an undeniable element in these conflicts. While all three groups were oppressed equally, only the Lucumís fought back, contesting accusations of backwardness, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and brujería (witchcraft), exaggerated by the sensationalistic media, often with the police’s and legal system’s complicity. Unlike the covert character of earlier epochs’ responses to oppression, in the twentieth century Lucumí resistance was overt and outspoken, publically refuting the accusations levied against African religions. Although these struggles had unintended consequences for the Lucumís, they gave birth to cubanidad’s African component. With the help of Fernando Ortiz, the Lucumí were situated at the pinnacle of a hierarchical pyramid, stratifying African religious complexes based on civilizational advancement, but at a costly price. Social ascent denigrated Lucumí religion to the status of folklore, depriving it of its status as a bona fide religious complex. To the present, Lucumí religious descendants, in Cuba and, after 1959, in many other areas of the world, are still contesting this contradiction in terms: an elevated downgrade.

Diabetes and ethnic minorities

The global prevalence of diabetes for all age groups is estimated to be 2.8%. Type 2 diabetes accounts for at least 90% of diabetes worldwide. Diabetes incidence, prevalence, and disease progression varies by ethnic group. This review highlights unique aspects of the risk of developing diabetes, its overwhelming vascular complications, and their management mainly using data among South Asians and African-Caribbeans in the UK but also using non-UK data. It is concluded that although the origin of the ethnic differences in incidence need further clarification, many factors should be amenable to prevention and treatment in all ethnic groups worldwide.

Vitamin D, obesity, and obesity-related chronic disease among ethnic minorities : a systematic review

Objective : To assess the association between 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) status and obesity, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), the metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in ethnic minorities.

Methods : Databases searched were CINHAL with full text, Global Health, MEDLINE with full text, and PsycINFO from 1980 through 2010 (February). Studies were included if they 1) targeted immigrants from low- to high-income countries or ethnic minorities, 2) focused primarily on 25(OH)D and its relation to obesity, T2DM, and/or CVDs, and 3) were published in peer-reviewed journals. The influences of key confounders such as age, gender, and ethnicity on any observed relations were also assessed. Due to the heterogeneity of study characteristics, only a narrative synthesis was undertaken.

Results : Ethnic minorities had significantly higher rates of vitamin D insufficiency (25[OH]D <50 nmol/L; children 43.6–48.7% versus 10%; adults 30.3–53% versus 13.7–26%) than their white counterparts. None of the studies reported a prevalence of obesity stratified by ethnicity. There was evidence supporting links between vitamin D deficiency and obesity-related chronic diseases, with 14 of 14 studies reporting a statistically significant result with a measurement of obesity, four of five for T2DM, four of five for CVDs, and one of one for the metabolic syndrome. However, the strength of the association varied across ethnic groups depending on the index used to measure adiposity, T2DM, and CVDs. Because most of the included studies were cross-sectional and there were variations in outcome measurements, it was not possible to determine the relative contributions of obesity or vitamin D insufficiency to CVD risk and risk of T2DM or which is the initial driver It is possible both have a role to play.

Conclusion : Further research specific to migrant populations using randomized controlled trials are required to establish whether causal links between 25(OH)D and obesity-related chronic disease exist, and whether vitamin D supplementation could be valuable in the prevention or treatment of obesity-related diseases.

Principle and prejudice : attitudes toward ethnic minorities in Quebec

L’intégration des nouveaux immigrants pose un défi, et ce, particulièrement dans les nations infra-étatiques. En effet, les citoyens vivant dans ces contextes ont davantage tendance à percevoir les immigrants comme de potentielles menaces politiques et culturelles. Cependant, les différents groupes ethniques et religieux minoritaires ne représentent pas tous le même degré de menace. Cette étude cherche à déterminer si les citoyens francophones québécois perçoivent différemment les différents groupes ethniques et religieux minoritaires, et s’ils entretiennent des attitudes plus négatives envers ces groupes, comparativement aux autres Canadiens. Dans la mesure où ces attitudes négatives existent, l’étude cherche à comprendre si ces dernières sont basées principalement sur des préjugés raciaux ou sur des inquiétudes culturelles. Se fondant sur des données nationales et provinciales, les résultats démontrent que les francophones Québécois sont plus négatifs envers les minorités religieuses que les autres canadiens mais pas envers les minorités raciales, et que ces attitudes négatives sont fondées principalement sur une inquiétude liée la laïcité et à la sécurité culturelle. L’antipathie envers certaines minorités observée au sein de la majorité francophone au Québec semble donc être dirigée envers des groupes spécifiques, et se fondent sur des principes de nature davantage culturelle que raciale.

Principle and prejudice : attitudes toward ethnic minorities in Quebec

L’intégration des nouveaux immigrants pose un défi, et ce, particulièrement dans les nations infra-étatiques. En effet, les citoyens vivant dans ces contextes ont davantage tendance à percevoir les immigrants comme de potentielles menaces politiques et culturelles. Cependant, les différents groupes ethniques et religieux minoritaires ne représentent pas tous le même degré de menace. Cette étude cherche à déterminer si les citoyens francophones québécois perçoivent différemment les différents groupes ethniques et religieux minoritaires, et s’ils entretiennent des attitudes plus négatives envers ces groupes, comparativement aux autres Canadiens. Dans la mesure où ces attitudes négatives existent, l’étude cherche à comprendre si ces dernières sont basées principalement sur des préjugés raciaux ou sur des inquiétudes culturelles. Se fondant sur des données nationales et provinciales, les résultats démontrent que les francophones Québécois sont plus négatifs envers les minorités religieuses que les autres canadiens mais pas envers les minorités raciales, et que ces attitudes négatives sont fondées principalement sur une inquiétude liée la laïcité et à la sécurité culturelle. L’antipathie envers certaines minorités observée au sein de la majorité francophone au Québec semble donc être dirigée envers des groupes spécifiques, et se fondent sur des principes de nature davantage culturelle que raciale.

Attitudes towards ideal family size of different ethnic/nationality groups in Great Britain, France and Germany.

This article reports upon results from a European Union funded project on the integration of children of international migrants in Britain, France and Germany. It provides both a descriptive and a multivariate analysis of the factors that determine attitudes towards ideal family size. The results reveal that there are large differences between ethnic groups in Britain: Indian and Pakistani respondents in Britain expressed a preference for significantly larger families. However, many children of international migrants expressed a desire for smaller families than the autochthonous population in both countries. This was particularly the case for Portuguese respondents in France and Turks in Germany. Religious affiliation also had a significant effect, above and beyond ethnicity per se. Both Moslems and Christians preferred larger families than those with no religious affiliation. The article concludes that ethnic differences in attitudes towards fertility behaviour will remain important in the foreseeable future in western Europe, particularly in Britain.

Diversity and local democracy. The case of Republic of Macedonia - implications of ethnic diversity on municipal decision making and organizational performance

This research seeks to review the level of knowledge achieved in interpreting the relationship between the ethnic diversity at the workplace in the public sector and the organizational performance; as well as seeks to contribute in understanding the implications of this relationship. The study commenced with investigating the academic research in the relevant area addressing the following research questions: (a) How are diversity management and organizational performance conceptualized? (b) What are the existing findings of research concerning diversity at the workplace in the public organizations and organizational performance? (c) What factors intervene the relationship between the diversity and organizational performance? Based on the findings from the review of the academic research, this study seeks to contribute in understanding the ethnic diversity – performance relationship and its mplications at the local level in the Macedonian context. The reform process in Macedonia as a multicultural society, where for many years, inter-ethnic relations have been one of the most sensitive political issues, affecting both the stability of the country and the progress, focused mainly on the implementation of the decentralization and inclusion of ethnic minorities in the decision making process. With the implementation of the Ohrid Framework Agreement workforce at the units of local self-government in Republic of Macedonia is becoming more balanced with respect to ethnic minorities, with more workforce participation than ever by Albanians, Turks, Roma and other minorities. As public organizations at local level become more diverse along ethnic lines, it makes sense to pay more attention to how different ethnic groups interact with one another at work. Thus it gives additional importance on the research question addressed in the study and gives significance of the research in a broader scope.

The Dynamics of the Policies of Ethnic Cleansing in Silesia in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Through studying German, Polish and Czech publications on Silesia, Mr. Kamusella found that most of them, instead of trying to objectively analyse the past, are devoted to proving some essential "Germanness", "Polishness" or "Czechness" of this region. He believes that the terminology and thought-patterns of nationalist ideology are so deeply entrenched in the minds of researchers that they do not consider themselves nationalist. However, he notes that, due to the spread of the results of the latest studies on ethnicity/nationalism (by Gellner, Hobsbawm, Smith, Erikson Buillig, amongst others), German publications on Silesia have become quite objective since the 1980s, and the same process (impeded by under funding) has been taking place in Poland and the Czech Republic since 1989. His own research totals some 500 pages, in English, presented on disc. So what are the traps into which historians have been inclined to fall? There is a tendency for them to treat Silesia as an entity which has existed forever, though Mr. Kamusella points out that it emerged as a region only at the beginning of the 11th century. These same historians speak of Poles, Czechs and Germans in Silesia, though Mr. Kamusella found that before the mid-19th century, identification was with an inhabitant's local area, religion or dynasty. In fact, a German national identity started to be forged in Prussian Silesia only during the Liberation War against Napoleon (1813-1815). It was concretised in 1861 in the form of the first Prussian census, when the language a citizen spoke was equated with his/her nationality. A similar census was carried out in Austrian Silesia only in 1881. The censuses forced the Silesians to choose their nationality despite their multiethnic multicultural identities. It was the active promotion of a German identity in Prussian Silesia, and Vienna's uneasy acceptance of the national identities in Austrian Silesia which stimulated the development of Polish national, Moravian ethnic and Upper Silesian ethnic regional identities in Upper Silesia, and Polish national, Czech national, Moravian ethnic and Silesian ethnic identities in Austrian Silesia. While traditional historians speak of the "nationalist struggle" as though it were a permanent characteristic of Silesia, Mr. Kamusella points out that such a struggle only developed in earnest after 1918. What is more, he shows how it has been conveniently forgotten that, besides the national players, there were also significant ethnic movements of Moravians, Upper Silesians, Silesians and the tutejsi (i.e. those who still chose to identify with their locality). At this point Mr. Kamusella moves into the area of linguistics. While traditionally historians have spoken of the conflicts between the three national languages (German, Polish and Czech), Mr Kamusella reminds us that the standardised forms of these languages, which we choose to dub "national", were developed only in the mid-18th century, after 1869 (when Polish became the official language in Galicia), and after the 1870s (when Czech became the official language in Bohemia). As for standard German, it was only widely promoted in Silesia from the mid 19th century onwards. In fact, the majority of the population of Prussian Upper Silesia and Austrian Silesia were bi- or even multilingual. What is more, the "Polish" and "Czech" Silesians spoke were not the standard languages we know today, but a continuum of West-Slavic dialects in the countryside and a continuum of West-Slavic/German creoles in the urbanised areas. Such was the linguistic confusion that, from time to time, some ethnic/regional and Church activists strove to create a distinctive Upper Silesian/Silesian language on the basis of these dialects/creoles, but their efforts were thwarted by the staunch promotion of standard German, and after 1918, of standard Polish and Czech. Still on the subject of language, Mr. Kamusella draws attention to a problem around the issue of place names and personal names. Polish historians use current Polish versions of the Silesian place names, Czechs use current Polish/Czech versions of the place names, and Germans use the German versions which were in use in Silesia up to 1945. Mr. Kamusella attempted to avoid this, as he sees it, nationalist tendency, by using an appropriate version of a place name for a given period and providing its modern counterpart in parentheses. In the case of modern place names he gives the German version in parentheses. As for the name of historical figures, he strove to use the name entered on the birth certificate of the person involved, and by doing so avoid such confusion as, for instance, surrounds the Austrian Silesian pastor L.J. Sherschnik, who in German became Scherschnick, in Polish, Szersznik, and in Czech, Sersnik. Indeed, the prospective Silesian scholar should, Mr. Kamusella suggests, as well as the three languages directly involved in the area itself, know English and French, since many documents and books on the subject have been published in these languages, and even Latin, when dealing in depth with the period before the mid-19th century. Mr. Kamusella divides the policies of ethnic cleansing into two categories. The first he classifies as soft, meaning that policy is confined to the educational system, army, civil service and the church, and the aim is that everyone learn the language of the dominant group. The second is the group of hard policies, which amount to what is popularly labelled as ethnic cleansing. This category of policy aims at the total assimilation and/or physical liquidation of the non-dominant groups non-congruent with the ideal of homogeneity of a given nation-state. Mr. Kamusella found that soft policies were consciously and systematically employed by Prussia/Germany in Prussian Silesia from the 1860s to 1918, whereas in Austrian Silesia, Vienna quite inconsistently dabbled in them from the 1880s to 1917. In the inter-war period, the emergence of the nation-states of Poland and Czechoslovakia led to full employment of the soft policies and partial employment of the hard ones (curbed by the League of Nations minorities protection system) in Czechoslovakian Silesia, German Upper Silesia and the Polish parts of Upper and Austrian Silesia. In 1939-1945, Berlin started consistently using all the "hard" methods to homogenise Polish and Czechoslovakian Silesia which fell, in their entirety, within the Reich's borders. After World War II Czechoslovakia regained its prewar part of Silesia while Poland was given its prewar section plus almost the whole of the prewar German province. Subsequently, with the active involvement and support of the Soviet Union, Warsaw and Prague expelled the majority of Germans from Silesia in 1945-1948 (there were also instances of the Poles expelling Upper Silesian Czechs/Moravians, and of the Czechs expelling Czech Silesian Poles/pro-Polish Silesians). During the period of communist rule, the same two countries carried out a thorough Polonisation and Czechisation of Silesia, submerging this region into a new, non-historically based administrative division. Democratisation in the wake of the fall of communism, and a gradual retreat from the nationalist ideal of the homogeneous nation-state with a view to possible membership of the European Union, caused the abolition of the "hard" policies and phasing out of the "soft" ones. Consequently, limited revivals of various ethnic/national minorities have been observed in Czech and Polish Silesia, whereas Silesian regionalism has become popular in the westernmost part of Silesia which remained part of Germany. Mr. Kamusella believes it is possible that, with the overcoming of the nation-state discourse in European politics, when the expression of multiethnicity and multilingualism has become the cause of the day in Silesia, regionalism will hold sway in this region, uniting its ethnically/nationally variegated population in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity championed by the European Union.

Men and heart disease : an atlas of racial and ethnic disparities in mortality /

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Minorities, Measured Cognitive Skills and the Earnings of Canadians (Working Paper 26)

This paper uses the Statistics Canada Survey of Literacy Skills in Daily Use (LSUDA) to investigate minority-“white”(i.e., non-minority) income differences and the role education and English/French literacy and numeracy skills play in those patterns. There are three principal sets of findings. First, among males, some visible minority groups have substantially lower levels of the measured language and number skills than whites and other more economically successful minorities, and in some cases these differences play a significant role in explaining the observed income patterns. The minority-white income gaps are, however, much smaller for women, and the literacy and numeracy variables do not have much of a role to play in explaining those differences. Second, for men, the minority-white income gaps are largely confined to immigrants, and there are no significant differences amongst the native-born once various factors which affect incomes (including education and the literacy and numeracy measures) are taken into account. For women, though, minority-white income differences only emerge for certain Canadian-born groups when they are differentiated from immigrants, for whom different gaps become apparent. Finally, the measured returns to literacy and numeracy differ significantly by ethnic group and sex. Various implications of the findings are discussed.